Dell desktop turned black screen after changing the battery

Try resetting the CMOS again, using this procedure.

Power off PC, disconnect the AC power cord, press the power button to drain any residual power.  Open the case and remove the CR2032 battery for at least 10 minutes.  Replace battery, reconnect AC power cord and reset BIOS.

If this does not clear it, there is a motherboard problem.  Considering the age of the PC, time for a new/newer model?

@RoHe Thanks for your suggestion. I did as you said, but the black screen still comes out.

Also, when I set the CD-ROM as the first device on boot sequence and insert the Win OS into the DVD drive, the black screen comes out and F keys do not work.

I think the BIOS can identify my hard drive, but why it can not read information from it?

@shop4what   Sounds like this is an old PC.

Sure the new motherboard battery is good and installed correctly?

Every time you reset BIOS back to the defaults, you change the diskette drive controller setting back to Enabled. So you keep getting the same error.

Power on and open BIOS setup. Set the current date and time, disable the diskette drive controller and set the correct boot sequence. Now save these changes and just exit setup. DO NOT reset BIOS to the defaults before you exit setup because all your changes will be lost...

Exactly which PC model is this and what version of Windows?

Did you put the DVD in the drive, close it, power PC off with disc in the drive and then on again to see if it will boot from that disc?

Did you stop getting the diskette error at boot by making/saving that change and exiting setup without resetting to the defaults again? That would tell you BIOS is holding the changes you made/saved so the battery is good and the CMOS chip can hold new, non-default settings.

Go into BIOS setup and select the SATA Operation option that I see listed in your screen shot. Without knowing the exact PC model, I don't know what the settings options are for SATA Operation. But if AHCI is an option, try that one. Be sure to save the change before exiting setup (without resetting to the defaults) and see if it boots now.

If that doesn't help, reboot PC and start tapping F12 when you see the Dell splash screen. When the menu opens, look for the Diagnostics option. Run all of them, including RAM and extended HDD tests. Copy error message(s), if any.

@RoHe 

Exactly which PC model is this and what version of Windows?

Dimension E521, Windows7

Did you put the DVD in the drive, close it, power PC off with disc in the drive and then on again to see if it will boot from that disc?

When I was able to enter BIOS, I set the DVD as the first on boot sequence. Then I put in Win DVD and reboot the desktop. The procedure should be right.

Did you stop getting the diskette error at boot by making/saving that change and exiting setup without resetting to the defaults again? That would tell you BIOS is holding the changes you made/saved so the battery is good and the CMOS chip can hold new, non-default settings.

I clear the diskette error and exit with saving.

Go into BIOS setup and select the SATA Operation option that I see listed in your screen shot. Without knowing the exact PC model, I don't know what the settings options are for SATA Operation. But if AHCI is an option, try that one. Be sure to save the change before exiting setup (without resetting to the defaults) and see if it boots now.

Please see the screenshot (https://imgur.com/a/yL61T1i), the SATA operation has two option: raid off , raid on. I am not sure about the difference between them. But I take turns choosing either one, but the outcome was the same.

If that doesn't help, reboot PC and start tapping F12 when you see the Dell splash screen. When the menu opens, look for the Diagnostics option. Run all of them, including RAM and extended HDD tests. Copy error message(s), if any.

The current issue is that F2 and F12 keys do not work and the booting process gets stuck in the black screen.

The current situation is that: 

If I move the jumper plug from PSWD to COMS and back, the rebooting can lead me into the bios. 

However, when I was in BIOS and make any changes in boot sequence, exit while saving. the afterward rebooting always lead to the black screen with F keys not working. Even if I set the CD ROM as the first device in boot sequence and put win dvd into the drive, the rebooting leads to the black screen with F keys not working.

Under this circumstance, I have to move the jumper plug again in order to enter the BIOS. This forms a cycle. And I can boot the computer from hard drive or DVD drive.

Hello shop4what,

Try the below mentioned steps hopes it helps

Method 1

1) Boot to the BIOS Setup by pressing the F2 key on your keyboard.

2) Make sure "boot sequence" are correct (Most likely the Floppy Drive /Diskette Drive could be the First boot device due to which you are getting this error just disable it if you are not using it. Make Hard drive your first boot device that should solve the issue.)

Note:  If still giving issue shutdown the computer turn off the power and then remove all external devices from the computer like External CD/DVD Drive, External Hard Drive, Printer, Docking Station etc the only thing that should be connected would be your Keyboard, Mouse monitor and power supply and follow Method 2

Method 2

Try clearing the NVRAM? (Doing this step reset the bios to the factory setting)     

Sometimes after any hardware changes are done like replacing the CMOS Battery the hardware information stored in the NVRAM is not updated properly. This can cause an F1 - F2 boot up problem such as you are experiencing. To clear the NVRAM, please do the below steps:

1. Reboot system and enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2.
2. Turn on Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and Num Lock.
3. Press "ALT + E" for 10sec then "ALT + F" for 10sec (should hear beep sound ) then ALT + B
4. Save and exit from bios (restart the computer) and again repeat steps mentioned in Method 1

Regards,

Pauly Tech

---

@shop4what wrote:

@RoHe 

Exactly which PC model is this and what version of Windows?

Dimension E521, Windows7

Did you put the DVD in the drive, close it, power PC off with disc in the drive and then on again to see if it will boot from that disc?

When I was able to enter BIOS, I set the DVD as the first on boot sequence. Then I put in Win DVD and reboot the desktop. The procedure should be right.

Did you stop getting the diskette error at boot by making/saving that change and exiting setup without resetting to the defaults again? That would tell you BIOS is holding the changes you made/saved so the battery is good and the CMOS chip can hold new, non-default settings.

I clear the diskette error and exit with saving.

Go into BIOS setup and select the SATA Operation option that I see listed in your screen shot. Without knowing the exact PC model, I don't know what the settings options are for SATA Operation. But if AHCI is an option, try that one. Be sure to save the change before exiting setup (without resetting to the defaults) and see if it boots now.

Please see the screenshot (https://imgur.com/a/yL61T1i), the SATA operation has two option: raid off , raid on. I am not sure about the difference between them. But I take turns choosing either one, but the outcome was the same.

 

If that doesn't help, reboot PC and start tapping F12 when you see the Dell splash screen. When the menu opens, look for the Diagnostics option. Run all of them, including RAM and extended HDD tests. Copy error message(s), if any.

The current issue is that F2 and F12 keys do not work and the booting process gets stuck in the black screen.

Did you trying powering PC off completely after inserting the DVD, not just doing a restart?

RAID should be off in BIOS setup.

What do you mean "cleared the diskette error and exit with saving"? Do you mean you changed the diskette controller setting to disabled, saved the change and exited setup? And are you saying you're still getting the same diskette error message when you try to boot?

Don't know why you're using the PSWD jumper. That only resets the BIOS password, it does not reset BIOS settings. You can clear BIOS with the RTCRST jumper. See motherboard diagram in the Service Manual.

If you're using a wireless keyboard, can you try a wired one and a different rear USB2 port on PC?

But let's back up. When PC won't boot, what color is the power button on front of PC and is it steady or blinking? And what color are the 4 diagnostic LEDs on the front panel? You can look up the error codes in the Service Manual.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. Now, the issue disappeared after a few days and the desktop can be rooted. However, still not sure about the actual reason.

black screen 1 requires pressing space bar to bypass ram test

He has ancient vacuum tube Dimension E521 from 2007 AMD CPU

Given the age of this system the hard drive may be bad and its hanging there as well.

Turn off

Remove data cable from sata drives

Turn back on and then F2 to get into bios.

@shop4what 

Be good idea to make an image of the entire HDD while everything is working. That way if the HDD is dying, you can replace it and quickly move the image onto the new drive. You could use Macrium Reflect (free) and save the image on an external HDD.

And after you do that, you should check the HDD for problems:

1. At desktop, open a CMD prompt window, Run as administrator
2. At the prompt, type in: chkdsk c: /r and press Enter
3. Accept the option to run chkdsk at next boot
4. Close CMD window and reboot PC. chkdsk will run before Windows loads so be patient
5. Note error messages, if any, when it's done

You can also look at the Win 7 chkdsk log file to see what it says.